How do I load my music from my Clip to my computer? I have Windows Media player 9.
If you have WiMP9, you should go one step further and upgrade to WiMP 10 or 11. Click on the Updates tab in Windows Media Player. WiMP 10 and later include the MTP drivers for the Sansa, making for enhanced control.
If you’ve just stared with the Clip, the device needs MP3 or WMA files with ID3 version 2.3 tags embedded in them. If you open WiMP, take a favorite CD, and click on the “rip” tab, WiMP will convert the CD tracks to WMA by default. You can change the setting to MP3 (more universal) if desired. Be sure to turn “copy protection” off.
On the Clip, you can connect in either of two modes, MSC or MTP.
A brief note about the two modes: MSC (mass storage class) is the direct mode, where the device is seen as a flash drive. MTP (media transfer protocol) is where the device is seen as a media player, and it can handle DRM (encrypted or protected) media, but this mode requires that you upgrade your media player.
In a nutshell, with the device connected in either mode (as you are currently set up, it would be MSC only), click the sync tab in WiMP, and the Clip will show up in the upper right. Files dragged to the “sync pane” in the right will be transferred to the device after clicking on the sync button in the lower right.
Download this User Guide. It will show you the process in vivid color!
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
Bob, Thanks for the info. Here is some more info that may help you help me. The PC (work PC) is running 2000 Professional. I seem to only be able to use WinMP9 on it. There is no “sync” button on that MP. I must be in MSC mode because the PC lists it as a Mass storage device. I can’t change that for my Clip needs a firmware upgrade and I can’t do that on Windows 2000 Pro (according to the webpage). Any other help?
If the Clip shows up as a drive letter, you shouldn’t have any problem updating the FW manually. Just download the FW file and unzip it to the root of the Clip. Disconnect the Clip and it should restart and load the new FW.
You also might want to check out Winamp instead of WMP, especially if you are going to use MSC mode.
Couldn’t have said it better than Skinjob!
Win2000 Pro is the exception, WiMP9 is as far as you can go. WinXP came bundled with WiMP9, and can be easily updated to the latest service packs and WiMP11, giving you MTP (DRM) capability.
Win2000 is a very stable platform. You can run just fine in MSC mode. If you want to give your USB bus a bit of plutonium, spend the $10 and get a PCI bus USB2.0 card. This will give you a high speed USB with the current capacity to rapidly charge your Sansa.
The USB1.1 ports on the Win2000 machine still can charge the Sansa, just a bit slower.
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
Message Edited by neutron_bob on 11-18-2008 11:00 PM
@skinjob wrote:
You also might want to check out Winamp instead of WMP, especially if you are going to use MSC mode.
Why is that? Any special reason for using Winamp with MSC?
Compared against WiMP, Winamp has a very straightforward interface, and has cool plugins.
Well, let’s think about that. Windows Media Player gives us processor-intensive psycho scrolling “visualizations” and a one for all skin, but it does do the job (as long as you’re careful about its desire to rule the world). I run WiMP11, as it’s useful for diagnosing compatibilities. WiMP is my personal PC poltergeist, as it can have a mind of its own.
Winamp, when I used it years ago, had a sublimely cool “micro” player and one skin with spinning open reels, my favorite. I used to cue up the llama-whipping sound bite, from before it was edited.
One can go crazy customizing Winamp, and it’s great for managing your music.
Bob 
@pyrazol wrote:
@skinjob wrote:
You also might want to check out Winamp instead of WMP, especially if you are going to use MSC mode.
Why is that? Any special reason for using Winamp with MSC?
WMP defintely has a preference for MTP mode. Winmp has excellent MSC capabilities. The MSC portable syncing is very slick and you get far more control over file/folder naming conventions, transcoding, etc. with Winamp than with WMP. Not to mention that Winamp makes it very simple to create/edit m3u playlists on the Clip.
I find WMP to be very limited and often quite confusing. Winamp offers far more power, flexibility & customizability while still remianing very simple to use.
And it’s actually true of MTP mode as well, but there is a confilct between WMP11 and Winamp, so I usually steer people away from Winamp if MTP mode is required.
@bob: Yeah, I do know those things about Winamp (I use it myself :D), but Skinjob was very specific in saying that he’d recommend Winamp for MSC mode in particular, and I wanted to know why, simply because I didn’t know the benefit of using Winamp for MSC. So basically what you meant is that ANYthing is better than WMP, because it doesn’t do well with MSC and Winamp is a good alternative anyway. Yeah, that I can agree on… (I detest a lot of things Microsoft churns out to the public :P)
@skinjob wrote:
I find WMP to be very limited and often quite confusing. Winamp offers far more power, flexibility & customizability while still remianing very simple to use.
Word.
@skinjob wrote:
And it’s actually true of MTP mode as well, but there is a confilct between WMP11 and Winamp, so I usually steer people away from Winamp if MTP mode is required.
What kind of conflict? I have both Winamp and WMP on my PC and Winamp works fine with MTP for me.
Message Edited by Pyrazol on 11-20-2008 07:18 PM
@pyrazol wrote:
What kind of conflict? I have both Winamp and WMP on my PC and Winamp works fine with MTP for me.
Message Edited by Pyrazol on 11-20-2008 07:18 PM
WMP11’s MTP Service would grab any MTP device before Winamp could, causing Winamp to crash on startup. AFAIK, it’s still an outstanding issue, but I never use MTP mode, so I’m not 100% sure. It’s wasn’t a problem with WMP10.
There’s no problem with MSC mode.
Message Edited by Skinjob on 11-20-2008 02:27 PM
@skinjob wrote:
WMP11’s MTP Service would grab any MTP device before Winamp could, causing Winamp to crash on startup. AFAIK, it’s still an outstanding issue, but I never use MTP mode, so I’m not 100% sure. It’s wasn’t a problem with WMP10.
Huh. I have WMP11. Does that crash occur when WMP is running, or does it occur even when it’s only installed? It’s never happened to me.
@pyrazol wrote:
@skinjob wrote:
WMP11’s MTP Service would grab any MTP device before Winamp could, causing Winamp to crash on startup. AFAIK, it’s still an outstanding issue, but I never use MTP mode, so I’m not 100% sure. It’s wasn’t a problem with WMP10.
Huh. I have WMP11. Does that crash occur when WMP is running, or does it occur even when it’s only installed? It’s never happened to me.
Supposed to happen even if WMP isn’t running. I think because the MTP stack actually runs as a service. Maybe the last Winamp update fixed it, but I don’t remember reading anything about a fix in the Winamp forums. But again, it’s not something I follow too closely since I don’t use MTP. Maybe you’re just lucky. 
Hehe. Well I hope I’ll stay lucky… I’ll basically get a new computer soon. And then I’ll start using Vista…
@pyrazol wrote:
Hehe. Well I hope I’ll stay lucky… I’ll basically get a new computer soon. And then I’ll start using Vista…
Thought you wanted to stay lucky? . . . With Vista? :smileyvery-happy: :smileyvery-happy: :smileyvery-happy:
Well, yeah, that’s kind of the whole paradox of the situation. That’s why I’m hoping I’ll stay lucky
If they’d release DirectX10 for XP I’d go back to it in no time, but then again that’s exactly why they DIDN’T release it for XP 
I have seen with several new computers that the solution to Windows Mojave is to retrofit to Windows XP. As if renaming that turkey (Vista) would make an improvement. You’ll like the video!
I see that the YouTube video has been removed. Most unfortunate. I wonder why that happened? Gates has been quite the wandering minstrel lately. On that thought, maybe Vista was written with that mindset, you know, “wandering minstrels” dropping wee bits of code here and there…
I am hopeful that Microsoft will learn from their mistakes. Is that possible?
Bob :smileyvery-happy:
Message Edited by neutron_bob on 11-23-2008 07:54 AM
I was very reluctant to buy a laptop, because all of them had Vista preinstalled. All I could hear was how much Vista sucked. I finally decided to bite the bullet and after using it for a couple of weeks I honestly cannot understand why people hate Vista that much. It’s a perfectly working, sweet looking OS… :neutral_face:
Well, according to my roomie for example copying files is much slower than it was with XP… for one thing. He hates it, and he’s working with Windows a lot. But oh well.
The slow file copying has been “fixed” in Vista SP1, although it wasn’t really a bug (most of the time). Vista was just waiting until the cache was written to disk before closing the dialog box. XP just closes the dialog and lets the cache empty in the background.
Even though I’m also a hardcore XP fan, I don’t see anything wrong with Vista. I would upgrade my desktop PC too, but it’s too old to handle Vista (Athlon XP 2000+). :stuck_out_tongue:
Hmm. Well, that takes some of my mortal fear away. I didn’t think I would have many issues with it anyway… except maybe some compatibility issues with older programs and stuff. And maybe the WMP-Winamp-MTP bug thingy that started all this.
